On a recent trip to Loblaws, I found myself crouched between towering stacks of Tide detergent pods and paper towels, trying to figure out where a bottle of electric-blue dish soap came from.
From the moment I entered the store and grabbed the first item on my list – Palmolive Oxy dish detergent – I needed to pull out my phone to figure out if it came from the United States. Here, as in many aisles, the label wouldn’t suffice.
Spending extra time at the grocery store was just one consequence of my efforts to boycott U.S. products and join the #ByeAmerica movement. Shelling out more money was another.
With more Canadians rallying behind domestic producers in the face of a looming trade war with the U.S. and a President who proudly calls himself “Tariff Man,” I wanted to see just how challenging it is to avoid American consumer goods – or, better yet, to buy exclusively Canadian.
Armed with a shopping list spanning essentials such as fruit, oats, dairy, fresh and frozen veggies and salty snacks, I trekked to my local grocery conglomerate.
Dodging American goods proved easy in the pasta, fruit and frozen veggie aisles in addition to the obvious winners such as meat and dairy. But Canadian alternatives weren’t always the most cost-effective – boycotting gave my bill about a $6 bump, for a grand total of $83.89.
This may be a small price to pay for feeling good about what you buy. But it’s still an added expense after Canadians have already struggled with higher prices in recent years. Roughly half of all Canadians reported rising costs affecting their ability to meet day-to-day expenses, according to 2024 Statistics Canada data – a 12-per-cent bump from two years ago.
I also had to give up my favourite snacks and trusted brands while spending untold minutes googling product origins.
Jennifer Clapp, a University of Waterloo professor whose research has dealt with international trade in food, said Canada’s labelling rules are anything but clear, creating headaches for boycotters.
Labelling a product as “Made in Canada” or “Product of Canada” is voluntary for brands that fulfill the criteria. To count as “Made in Canada,” for example, the product must have its last substantial transformation completed in Canada – such as cookies made from both domestic and imported ingredients.
Beyond those two labels, brands have various methods for staying ambiguous. For example, if a product is manufactured outside of Canada, a company has multiple options for how to present the information.
These include saying it’s “imported for” followed by the name and address of a Canadian company (which can make it seem as if it’s a wholly Canadian product), or inscribing the name and address of the Canadian company with the country of origin of the product.
Luckily, things got easier in the pasta section. I skipped Barilla ($2.99), which has a chunk of its production in the U.S., for a cheaper President’s Choice option made in Turkey ($2.50). Canadian-made Catelli was pricier ($3.99). (According to Barilla’s website, its pasta sold in Canada is made in Iowa and New York with a few exceptions. While Barilla acquired Catelli, the latter states it has production in Montreal. Barilla did not respond to a request for updated information on where their products are made.)
For frozen veggies, there were Canadian options galore and often for a better deal: The President’s Choice vegetable medley cost 67 cents per 100 grams, compared with 80 cents per 100 grams for a Valley Selections Essentials bag from the U.S., about a 19-per-cent difference.
I breezed through the meat and dairy aisles – mostly an easy win for Canada because of supply management. This system gives domestic farmers production quotas and regulates prices (though some argue it can cost consumers more), giving them an upper hand in our grocery aisles. My No Frills butter was proudly inscribed “Product of Canada.”
Things got tricky again in the sauces and condiments aisle. There, dozens of bright red cans of tomato paste boasted promises of being “Prepared for Canada” and “Imported for [insert Canadian branch of multinational corporation]” as well as being kosher and having “Simple” ingredients. But with the exception of Unico, a “Product of Canada” option at $1.49 a pop, there was little clarity on where each one came from.
A Google search confirmed that Hunt’s was American, though the label proclaimed, “Made in Canada with domestic and imported ingredients.” In a bid to save a few cents (and minutes), I took a gamble on the No Name brand marked as “Prepared for Loblaw’s,” trusting an online source that claimed it was likely a product of Canada.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s guide provides no clear explanation on what “prepared for” means.
Beans presented a similar dilemma. Unico clearly labelled its 540ml bottle of kidney beans as a “Product of Canada” at $2.49, while No Name chose to stay ambiguous at $1.49. Given that the U.S. is one of a handful of countries that supplies Canada’s beans, I took a calculated risk and picked No Name to save $1.
Fruits were easy: My go-tos, such as honeycrisp apples, were mostly Canadian, except for lemons imported from South Africa.
Challenges arose again in the oats and cereal aisle. President’s Choice instant oats were American-made, but 88 cents cheaper than the “Made in Canada” option from U.S. brand Quaker Oats.
A few ambiently lit steps later, I faced another struggle in the rice section. My go-to 2kg bag of brown rice at $6 was a “Product of the U.S.A.,” while an international option was $4.29 for a bag a fraction of the size. The difference was a $2 loss – $0.572 versus $0.30 per 100 g.
I will likely not garner sympathy here, but snackers beware: My usual 167g bag of Goldfish crackers at $2.50 was sadly a product of the U.S. and off-limits. I settled for a 200g bag of oddly named “Extra Cheesy Little Penguins” from President’s Choice for 79 cents more. (I was not convinced this lacklustre option was totally made in Canada, but the brand was Canadian so I cut my losses.)
Leafy greens were another challenge. A 227g bag of U.S. spinach was $4, while a smaller 142g Canadian organic option was $5 – about double the price per gram.
Nowhere was it harder to avoid U.S. products than in the cleaning products aisle. When I finally found a Canadian dish soap, it was $3.99 for a 740ml eco-friendly product versus $2 for 828ml of American Palmolive.
My verdict at checkout: Boycotting American goods isn’t exceptionally difficult, even in the winter when Canadians often rely on warmer states for produce. But those who love brand-name snacks (check), are unable to ditch vegetables such as spinach in their diets (check) and rely on public transit, limiting store options (check), should prepare to pay a slight premium while allocating more time for their weekly shopping trip.
Canadian boycotters who have more flexibility with where to shop can save money by buying in bulk, and avoid the headache of scanning labels by opting for seasonal vegetables, Prof. Clapp said.
Carol McAusland, a professor of food and resource economics at the University of British Columbia, suggested reaching for kale instead of spinach, or butter lettuce and grabbing more root vegetables, “stuff that keeps well in storage.”
“You can get excellent Canadian apples in January,” she said. “We shouldn’t see January strawberries as a necessity.”